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Finding Aid for the Ruth Frey Axe Collection of material about H.H. Bancroft and Company, 1854-1977
1427
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Title: Ruth Frey Axe Collection of material about H.H. Bancroft and Company
Date (inclusive): 1854-1977
Collection number: 1427
Creator: Axe, Ruth Frey.
Extent: 8 boxes (4.0 linear ft.)
Abstract: Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft and Co. and A.L.
Bancroft and Co. Ruth Frey Axe compiled the collection to complete the Bancroft publications checklist started by Henry Wagner
and Eleanor Bancroft.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Henry Raup Wagner was born Sept. 27,1862, in Philadelphia, PA; BA (1884) and LL.B. (1886), Yale Univ.; practiced law in Kansas
City, MO, 1887-90; worked for Globe Smelting and Refining Co. (Denver) (1890-98), and Guggenheim Interests (later American
Smelting and Refining Co.) (1898-1921); following his retirement in 1921, he devoted much of his time to writing on historical
subjects; Wagner's interest in California printers and printing led him to collect Bancroft publications and prepare a bibliography
on the subject; Eleanor Bancroft, then Asst to the Bancroft Library Director, assisted Wagner on this project; Wagner died
Mar. 28, 1957; he bequeathed his collection of Bancroft imprints to the California Historical Society and left the nearly
completed checklist project to Ruth Frey Axe. requesting that she see to its completion and publication.
Ruth Frey Axe was born in Chicago, IL and grew up in Los Angeles, CA; after two years at the Univ. of Vienna, she attended
UCLA, and subsequently earned a master's degree at the Univ. of So. CA; she first met Henry Wagner at UCLA, and became his
secretary and research assistant for nearly thirty years.
Hubert Howe Bancroft started publishing in 1857; his younger brother Albert Little Bancroft joined the business in 1859 making
them close associates both in business and family life; in 1868 A.L. Bancroft and Co. came into existence and H.H. Bancroft
and Co. was phased out; the brothers continued their association until 1886 when a fire and personal differences caused them
to split; Albert went on to co-found the firm of Bancroft-Whitney.
Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft and Co. and A.L.
Bancroft and Co. Ruth Frey Axe compiled the collection to complete the Bancroft publications checklist started by Henry Wagner
and Eleanor Bancroft.
Expanded Scope and Content Note
The collection comprises correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft & Co. and A.L.
Bancroft & Co. These were compiled by Ruth Frey Axe for the completion of a Bancroft Publications Check-list begun by her
late employer Henry Raup Wagner and Eleanor Ashby Bancroft, then Assistant to the Director of the Baacroft Library, The list
below is to be used in conjunction with Mrs. Axe's own inventory of the collection, a copy of which is attached. The original
typescript is in Box 1, f.1.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the repository's online public access catalog.
Axe, Ruth Frey--Archives.
H.H. Bancroft and Company.
A.L. Bancroft & Company.
Bibliographies--Archival resources.
Publishers and publishing--California, Northern.
Other Index Terms Related to this Collection
Wagner, Henry Raup, 1862-1957.
Bancroft, Eleanor.